“I’m not homophobic, I’m an ally”

“well thank you for your service”

today was a great day overall. it was long but good. I feel good about continuing. such a wild amount of daily tasks now in comparison to my previous lifestyle. I do miss the traveling and the calm days, but they weren’t filled with many things. I do like it that way, and I will prefer to return to that after my education. I miss living outside though really bad. I should go camping more truthfully, it’s just hard to get out with the little time I have and the early starts.

but anyway, work was smooth thankfully. calm day, not too stressful. I had a lot of good conversation with customers and saw a lot of regulars who are getting to know me and are much more accepting now. speaking of accepting, everyone around me is working so hard to get my pronouns correct. it’s just the sweetest thing, especially because most of my background has been an uphill battle trying to get people to do the thing. I’m extremely grateful to not have to fight tooth and nail all the time. today, this sweet customer pulled me aside and wanted to tell me that I fit in perfect here and am where I belong. she really had no idea how much I needed to hear that since all the difficulty in the last month since I’ve been here. I am so thankful that someone else can see that I belong here. I’m no longer an outsider to some.

school was easy and boring, the usual. I enjoy it though. it might be super repetitive, but I don’t feel like I walk away drained. I did get to start a cut on my new mannequin though just to hopefully get her hair less oddly layered and frayed. I only got through half of it today since I had other things to do, but it’s looking and feeling great so far. I’m really confident. granted, it’s like the easiest haircut, but I feel like a have a hold on it, I just needed the steps on the parting and cutting direction duo. it’s fun! it was so nice to be able to use shears again and properly cut some hair. all the styling is cool and all, but I am more comfortable with those things. I want to do the main thing I came here for.

speaking of, my classmate and I talked about teaming up and going out to shelters to cut hair. that’s really all I’ve wanted to do since I began. it’s so motivating to be able to see that so close in my future. the practice will be super helpful too. also, we tested today and I passed, missing only one question so that’s cool. after the test, I started off with a rinse, then blow dry, and straighten. I used the heat protectant we had which was in gel form. chi I think it’s called? not the point, anyway, it was super oily and didn’t spread well, though I do think the latter was mostly user error. it smoked like CRAZY in the mannequin’s hair. I appreciate heat protectants, but they really make your hair steam/smoke SO bad. I was actually so lowkey embarrassed about it but it looked much worse than it was.

I got to chat with my instructor about my coworker asking me about her hair and products last night. I did miss out on asking a lot of questions, but the end result was the exact same as what I told her, which is really exciting cause I did the thing right! yay! I also learned a lot from talking with him so that’s a huge added bonus.

side note, I have to complete 22 shampoos by the end of the month.. which is a lot when you have no customers getting their hair cut. thankfully, rinsing the mannequins counts, but I’m not even halfway through my washes yet so I’ll probably spend a day washing everybody’s hair. B got a cut today which was cool! now both the people next to me have cut hair on customers. it’s been really exciting to see everyone lifting each other up through the process. I’m getting more comfortable with the idea of cutting, but I really need to get some real folx in. we had fun listening to early 2000s hits and ended up with sean paul, natasha bedingfield, t pain, you name it. we did have some booty shaking music going pretty loud for a bit which seemed to help everybody zone into their tasks. just another usual day at TCR.

I got home and chatted with my mom a bit, which always ends up longer than I intend it to, mostly because I love talking to the woman, but we also have lots to chat about most times. after that, I started in on the new chapter. I got through 3 sections in 2.5 hours.. I think there’s over 20 in total. I need to do 5 a day to get it done in the timeframe I’d like to so that I can actually have some study time. it’s the chapter on hair cutting and they seemed to have decided to shove it all into one. it’ll be a long one but I’ve got a solid plan of attack. I didn’t finish home work until almost 7:30. I picked up around the house, got rid of some things I didn’t need, reorganized some stuff, showered, ate, took care of my plants, and now I’m here writing to you currently 9pm Colorado time. I’m up way too late for not having fully completed my nightly routine or prepping for tomorrow. should probably go do that cause tomorrow starts over at 5am! what time do you greet the big world for the day?